?The Classic British Banker?: The Rise and Fall of Barclays Libor Scandal Chairman Marcus Agius

Barclays (NYSE: BCS) Chairman Marcus Agius has become the first of British banking's big beasts to fall as public anger towards the lender rises in the wake of the Libor rate-fixing scandal.

So just who is Mr Agius, and how did he get to the very top of Britain's banking tree?

Born in 1946, Agius was described as smooth, urbane, and the classic British banker by London's Evening Standard, when they profiled him for the 2007 edition of the top 1000 most powerful people in London.

His family is steeped in tradition. Hailing from the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta (where his family trading company E.T.C. Agius is well known), his father was a Maltese trade commissioner serving in London before the Second World War, according to the Times of Malta.

He is married to Katherine Rothschild, daughter of Edmund de Rothschild, and a member of the famous Rothschild banking family. At the time, the union of the Catholic Agius to a Jewish Rothschild was seen as a strange one, but the pair has at least one hobby in common: art. Agius is by all accounts an avid collector, while his wife is a leading dealer in old masters, of which her family owns more than a few.

He is also a keen gardener, a passion shared by Katherine's late father, Edmund, and is Chairman of the Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London.

Agius has an impressive educational background, with an M.A in Mechanical Sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

His financial career began at the investment bank Lazard (NYSE: LAZ)  in 1972, where he worked his way up through the ranks, holding several senior positions. Making his name as an M&A specialist, in 2001 he was appointed Chairman of the London branch of Lazard, before graduating to become Deputy Chairman from 2002 until 2006.

From there he joined Barclays as a non-executive Director, before becoming Chairman in 2007.

According to Forbes, his most recent salary was $750,000.